Central Valley’s softball program has an outside shot at qualifying for the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs.
The Hawks kept their slim postseason hopes alive with a 5-3 win over the Atwater Falcons on Thursday in Ceres.
Central Valley lost the first meeting between the two Central California Conference teams, 6-1, on March 29.
“We came ready to play,” Hawks’ head coach Regina Selfridge said. “We were more prepared. Our defense was on-point. We had better hitting.”
“I’m really proud of the girls,” she added. “To come back after losing to them, that shows how hard the girls have been working at practice to get better.”
Central Valley improved to 6-4 overall and remained in tie for fourth place in the CCC with Patterson.
The Hawks trail Merced (9-0), Golden Valley (6-2) and Atwater (5-3) in the conference standings.
The CCC will send three teams to the playoffs at the end of the regular season.
“We have a very good possibility of making it,” Selfridge said. “We need to win the rest of our games and Atwater to mess up.”
Hawk Janessa Godinez allowed two earned runs and four hits with two strikeouts and one walks while pitching a complete game versus the Falcons.
Godinez batted 1-for-3 from the plate with one double and two RBIs.
Allie Peterman batted 1-for-3 with one double, one RBI and one run.
Victoria Lloyd batted 1-for-2 with two runs.
Jannet Valencia batted 1-for-3 with one run.
Julia Roton scored once.
Central Valley has won four of its last six games.
“They have no idea how good they can be,” Selfridge said. “They have so much potential.”
Central Valley will play host to El Capitan tomorrow at 4 p.m.
Dawgs dominate
Ceres High’s softball team didn’t lose any ground in the Western Athletic Conference standings this past week.
The Bulldogs remained in second place after besting Pacheco and Johansen.
Ceres High, which improved to 16-8 on the season and 9-2 in the WAC, has won 13 of its last 15 games.
“We want to play our best softball at the end of the year,” Bulldogs’ head coach Mike Corsaut said. “We want to have momentum going into playoffs.”
Host Ceres High extended its winning streak to five games with a 9-1 victory over fourth-place Pacheco on Friday.
Ceres High cruised to a 14-1 mercy-rule victory against Johansen on Wednesday in Modesto.
Ceres High will play at first-place Los Banos (11-0) today and host seventh-place Mountain House (2-8) on Friday. Games begin at 4 p.m.
